Comments on: Coincidental spirals for your Monday pleasure http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/ I am an astronomer, writer, and skeptic. I likes reality the way it is, and I aims to keep it that way. My real name is Phil Plait, and I run the Bad Astronomy blog. Fri, 25 May 2012 04:54:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Messier Tidy Upper http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432654 Messier Tidy Upper Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:55:02 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432654 Wow! Splendidly magnificent indeed. :-) Thanks BA - for this new desktop background & a great write up too. :-) Mind you I'm surprised you didn't save this for easter, with the easter-egg nestled inside an easter egg appearance of Messier 96 here. Surprised but not unhappy! Course easter is a lo-oong time away yet. ;-) @ 13. jennyxyzzy : I think our Moon would be a wee bit too bright for the VLT to look at it - same as it is with the <i>Hubble</i> space observatory. @11. Jon Hanford : Thanks. Cheers to (#10.) siravan & (#8) Peter (@polarisdotca) for their contrubutions here too. :-) @ 9. Chris A. : <i>"Kudos to ESO – My initial assumption was that it was a Hubble shot."</i> Yep, mine too. ;-) @ Wow! Splendidly magnificent indeed. :-)

Thanks BA – for this new desktop background & a great write up too. :-)

Mind you I’m surprised you didn’t save this for easter, with the easter-egg nestled inside an easter egg appearance of Messier 96 here. Surprised but not unhappy! Course easter is a lo-oong time away yet. ;-)

@ 13. jennyxyzzy : I think our Moon would be a wee bit too bright for the VLT to look at it – same as it is with the Hubble space observatory.

@11. Jon Hanford : Thanks. Cheers to (#10.) siravan & (#8) Peter (@polarisdotca) for their contrubutions here too. :-)

@ 9. Chris A. : “Kudos to ESO – My initial assumption was that it was a Hubble shot.”

Yep, mine too. ;-)

@

]]> By: Ian Straton http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432647 Ian Straton Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:35:31 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432647 @ 13, In theory I suppose it would, however pointing an 8m mirror at the moon would fry the ccd on the recieving end so there would be no way to take a picture... putting your eye to it probably wouldn't be a great idea either... @ 13,
In theory I suppose it would, however pointing an 8m mirror at the moon would fry the ccd on the recieving end so there would be no way to take a picture… putting your eye to it probably wouldn’t be a great idea either…

]]> By: jennyxyzzy http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432603 jennyxyzzy Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:37:12 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432603 Hmmm, I was surprised when Phil explained that this photo was taken by an earth-bound telescope, so I went scuttling off to the VLT's webpage, where I found this little nugget on the front page: "With this kind of precision the VLTI can reconstruct images with an angular resolution of milliarcseconds, equivalent to distinguishing the two headlights of a car at the distance of the Moon." Wouldn't that mean that the VLT is capable of seeing the moon landers/rovers? I thought we could only do that from the spacecraft that are orbiting the Moon??? Hmmm, I was surprised when Phil explained that this photo was taken by an earth-bound telescope, so I went scuttling off to the VLT’s webpage, where I found this little nugget on the front page:

“With this kind of precision the VLTI can reconstruct images with an angular resolution of milliarcseconds, equivalent to distinguishing the two headlights of a car at the distance of the Moon.”

Wouldn’t that mean that the VLT is capable of seeing the moon landers/rovers? I thought we could only do that from the spacecraft that are orbiting the Moon???

]]> By: bk_2 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432602 bk_2 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:33:48 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432602 It looks to me as though the outer ring is on different plane to the inner spiral. The top is above the spiral plane, the bottom of it below. It is roughly in a plane which is tilted twenty odd degrees to the spiral's plane. But maybe it's just an artifact of the geometry of the outer irregular arcs. It looks to me as though the outer ring is on different plane to the inner spiral. The top is above the spiral plane, the bottom of it below. It is roughly in a plane which is tilted twenty odd degrees to the spiral’s plane. But maybe it’s just an artifact of the geometry of the outer irregular arcs.

]]> By: Jon Hanford http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432486 Jon Hanford Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:35:47 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432486 M 96 has been implicated in the formation of the Leo Ring, a huge annulus of cold hydrogen gas found nearby: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1005/1005.4208v2.pdf An accompanying video shows the proposed head-on collision of M 96 with another galaxy, NGC 3384, that may have occurred over a billion years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seb2ZNqC1TY M 96 has been implicated in the formation of the Leo Ring, a huge annulus of cold hydrogen gas found nearby: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1005/1005.4208v2.pdf

An accompanying video shows the proposed head-on collision of M 96 with another galaxy, NGC 3384, that may have occurred over a billion years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seb2ZNqC1TY

]]> By: siravan http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432443 siravan Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:26:37 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432443 The reddish edge-on galaxy is 2MFGC 08391 (also called 2MASX J10465229+1150201). The reddish edge-on galaxy is 2MFGC 08391 (also called 2MASX J10465229+1150201).

]]> By: Chris A. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432440 Chris A. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:16:31 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432440 Kudos to ESO--My initial assumption was that it was a Hubble shot. Kudos to ESO–My initial assumption was that it was a Hubble shot.

]]> By: Peter (@polarisdotca) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432437 Peter (@polarisdotca) Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:06:48 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432437 Remember when NASA unveiled "The Mice", one of the first pix from the new Hubble ACS http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020506.html One of my colleagues said, "Nice picture, except for those big spirals in the way..." No surprise, he's a cosmologist! Remember when NASA unveiled “The Mice”, one of the first pix from the new Hubble ACS

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020506.html

One of my colleagues said, “Nice picture, except for those big spirals in the way…” No surprise, he’s a cosmologist!

]]> By: Stargazer http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432426 Stargazer Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:48:35 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432426 Beautiful. Beautiful.

]]> By: chris j. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432407 chris j. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:47:17 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432407 spiral? that inner ring looks pretty darn ring-like to me. and the irregular outer arms seem consistent with transitory arcs seen around ring galaxies as artifacts of the interaction with the other (unseen here) galaxy. spiral? that inner ring looks pretty darn ring-like to me. and the irregular outer arms seem consistent with transitory arcs seen around ring galaxies as artifacts of the interaction with the other (unseen here) galaxy.

]]> By: Robin Byron http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432401 Robin Byron Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:39:58 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432401 I can look at galaxies all day and I have, at Galaxy Zoo. They are so beautiful and cause the mind to speculate on the most outlandish(?) thoughts. Question, Phil. Around a year ago the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said they had good evidence that the Milky Way is actually about the same size as Andromeda (~150kly). Has that been poo-pooed? I can look at galaxies all day and I have, at Galaxy Zoo. They are so beautiful and cause the mind to speculate on the most outlandish(?) thoughts.

Question, Phil. Around a year ago the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said they had good evidence that the Milky Way is actually about the same size as Andromeda (~150kly). Has that been poo-pooed?

]]> By: skywatcher88 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432396 skywatcher88 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:34:49 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432396 OOOHHH AHHHH Can you count the total # of galaxies in this awesome universal jellybean jar? OOOHHH AHHHH
Can you count the total # of galaxies in this awesome universal jellybean jar?

]]> By: Infinite123Lifer http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432382 Infinite123Lifer Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:54:29 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432382 Is there such a thing as coincidence? (especially in spirals) I think existence itself suggests some type of order (our theories support that; math). Does chance have a reality? After the fact; I think, quite not. What about Mondays? Pleasurable? Really? Jk Two oxymorons in one title. Coincidence??? o_O Splendid! :-) Is there such a thing as coincidence? (especially in spirals)

I think existence itself suggests some type of order (our theories support that; math). Does chance have a reality? After the fact; I think, quite not.

What about Mondays? Pleasurable? Really? Jk

Two oxymorons in one title. Coincidence??? o_O

Splendid! :-)

]]> By: OtherRob http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432357 OtherRob Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:09:36 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432357 What Chris said. :) What Chris said. :)

]]> By: Chris http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coincidental-spirals-for-your-monday-pleasure/comment-page-1/#comment-432355 Chris Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:03:54 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/?p=39750#comment-432355 Oooh, pretty. Oooh, pretty.

]]>